This fast expansion in
e-commerce is driven primarily by improvements in technology and the increasing
pace of technology adoption. With the proliferation of smart phones, tablets
and wireless networks, more and more consumers have jumped on the Internet
bandwagon and grown increasingly confident in dealing with online activities
and transactions.

The increased
confidence has resulted in impatient and demanding online consumers. Research
by Frost & Sullivan shows that the slow loading time of Web pages is one of
the main reasons why customers move from one e-Commerce company to another.
This page-loading delay - also known as latency - translates into a loss of customers
and revenue, not to mention the negative impact on a company's brand. For
instance, an e-commerce website making daily sales of $100,000 is expected to
lose $2.5 million annually due to a one-second page delay[2].

"Consumers evaluate their online service
providers continuously during every login,

at every purchase, and at every return" -- Frost
& Sullivan

Video: How Important is Website Loading
Speed for E-Commerce?

United in the Face of Latency

For
global e-commerce company Shopify, which hosts over 40,000 active online
retailers worldwide, it faces the constant challenge of ensuring the best user experience
for shoppers in a multitude of countries from US and Europe to Australia and
New Zealand. And as its customer base of online merchants grow around the
globe, the challenge becomes more acute.

"We
needed a single solution to address the existing large volume of site traffic
in the US, Canada, and Europe while at the same time allowing for global
growth, particularly in Australia," shares Mr Dale Neufeld, Director of
Technical Operations at Shopify.

As
for Arirang, Korea's leading global broadcaster, it needed to deliver a smooth
and uninterrupted delivery of its content to viewers scattered around the world,
especially the live streaming of videos. And its challenge was exacerbated by
the rise in popularity of watching broadcasts on mobile devices.

Arirang
management realised that the company needed to create a Web environment in
which viewers can catch its programmes smoothly across multiple devices, be it
desktops, mobile devices or smart TVs. Since its viewers are scattered around
the globe, establishing such a Web infrastructure would be a costly exercise
for the company.

Combating Latency with CDN

Shopify and Arirang are
instances of how the growing consumer demand for fast and uninterrupted access
to applications and websites have companies scrambling for solutions to reduce
the inherent Internet latency and congestion. And most companies find subscribing
to Content Delivery Network (CDN) services the most viable option. A CDN
handles the Web infrastructure demands in a cost-effective manner, freeing companies to
focus on their core business areas.

CDNs
can accelerate Web performance and bring the content -- be it static, dynamic
or mobile -- closer to consumers, thus reducing latency and speeding up
page-loading. According to Frost & Sullivan, one second of speed boost
increases sales by 3% per customer[3].

Shopify
turned to CDNetworks, a global CDN service provider to accelerate its web
applications and content.

"With
CDNetworks' local Points-of-Presence, our Australia-based merchants get the
same performance as in North America. Neither Shopify nor our customers have to
invest in data centres or co-hosting," says Mr Neufeld.

Since
subscribing to a reliable CDN solution, Shopify merchants have enjoyed 100
percent uptime of their online stores. This has not only optimised the end-user
experience on the merchants' websites, but also helped Shopify grow its
business. "We can attract those customers who want to focus on their business,
not on the IT needed to run and optimise their websites," Mr Neufeld adds.

For
Korean broadcaster Arirang, tapping on CDN services to accelerate its content
has allowed it to provide stable and high-quality live broadcasts to both local
and overseas viewers. In addition, users are now able to enjoy Arirang's
programs on smartphones, tablet PCs and other mobile devices anytime and
anywhere. And the global performance of its applications and content is
achieved without the company incurring a huge cost in infrastructure
investment.

"The
issue with video quality, to which most of the complaints raised by customers
on the bulletin board relate, has been decisively resolved by CDNetworks' Media
Acceleration service. I would like to thank the company for the way it actively
resolved the different unexpected issues that occurred in the service,"shares Mr Yoon Hyeon-Kyeong, Senior Manager of New
Media Team at Arirang.

Alongside
the latency issue is another equally, if not more, important issue of security.
Cyber attacks can render a company's website and services unavailable for
hours, or even days, resulting in loss of revenue and consumer confidence. And
the situation is aggravated if such attacks result in a breaching of customers'
data.

According
to a Cloud Security Alliance report[4] on the top threats
faced by organisations using cloud-based solutions, DDoS attacks, data breaches
and permanent data loss are among the major security threats that caused
long-term implications.

As
more consumers get connected to the Internet and increase their spending and
activities on the Web, companies across industries will face increasing
pressure to cater to the online needs of their customers. And the challenge is
compounded by the geographical dispersion of their customers around the world,
accessing their services and applications on any platform 24x7x365.

"Businesses
simply want to offer their customers around the globe a unified experience -- fast
and secured access to their websites and online services. The right CDN service
provider can boost Web performance and protect companies from cyber attacks
that can cripple their core infrastructure. This frees up precious time and
resources for companies to focus on their core business areas and not worry
about their online presence, costs and technology scale-up," says Mr Chung.

About CDNetworks
CDNetworks is
a global content delivery network with fully integrated Cloud Security DDoS
protection and web application firewall. Our mission is to transform the
Internet into a secure, reliable, scalable, and high-performing Application
Delivery Network. CDNetworks accelerates more than 40,000+ websites and cloud
services over a network of more than 200+ global PoPs in established and
emerging markets including China and SEA. We have been serving enterprise
customers for 15 years across industries such as gaming, finance, e-commerce,
high tech, manufacturing, and media. CDNetworks offices are located in
Singapore, the US, UK, South Korea, China, and Japan. For more information,
please visit: http://www.cdnetworks.com.sg